An apple a day helps to keep the doctor away. Is that really true? Johnny appleseed thought so - he planted thousands of trees to provide free food to colonists. It's pretty amazing if you think about it - people who were starving and had nothing to eat could simply walk to a tree and pluck a bunch of them.

While we think of apple "types" in modern times - red delicious, granny smith, in the old day there were simply trillions of trees, each one unique. They all bred with each other and created new varieties by the score. In modern times we've decided on specific types we enjoy and we make sure to graft them carefully so that their traits are passed down.

Apples are of course natural objects! They come in large and small, tart and sweet, juicy and dry. Any count you get for any apple is an approximation. Low carbing is about having a healthy lifestyle, not about obsession about .1g of carbs :)

carbs: 21g
fiber: 4g
net carbs: 17g
calories: 81
fat: 0g
cholesterol: 0g
sodium: 0g
protein: 0g

Vitamin C: 8%
Vitamin A: 2%
Iron: 2%

OK, so that's a lot of carbs in one apple! Apples are full of natural fruit sugar, i.e. fructose. That being said, you have to keep things in perspective. If you are craving something sweet and are about to eat an entire jar of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, having an apple is FAR better. Once you're on maintenance, you can easily have an apple each day and have it fit into your total daily carbs.

But if you are sitting there eating 5 apples a day and smothering them with peanut butter, and claiming this is "healthy" because apples come from trees, then you're unfortunately fooling yourself. Lots of unhealthy things come from nature :) The key is moderation here.

Raisins Nutrition

Raisins are shrivelled up grapes. You'd think with grapes and wine being so healthy, that raisins would also be healthy. Raisins are chock full of sugar!

Just 1/4 cup of raisins have 31g of carbs in them. Compare that to 2.6g for the same amount of watermelon, or 2.0g for the same amount of cranberry.

It always amuses me that marketing groups push raisins as a healthy snack - as if they were a "fruit". They have less than 2% of your US RDA of Vitamin C, 6% of your iron, 2% of your calcium and under 2% of Vitamin A. Many snack bars I know of have much higher nutritional values.

If you're going to send a snack along with a lunch box, look through our recipe lists to find other things that are both tasty and good for you. As much as I love raisins in cookies and muffins, as a food to in "in a block", they don't quite cut it.

It's funny, I've always considered watermelon to be a sweet fruit that must have a ton of sugar in it. It's actually quite low in sugar, and good for you too!

Watermelons are of course melons, and are called so because they are very juicy and full of water. They first came from Egypt and quickly spread arond the world. They grow generally in oval shapes, with a dark green rind and bright pink inside. They are related to other vine-growing melons / veggies like cantelope and pumpkins.

Watermelons have almost 25% of your daily vitamin C in a single cup, as well as 10% of your Vitamin A, B1 and B6. It has a lot of water in it, which is also really important for your health. Drinking / ingesting lots of water helps greatly with your body's functioning and losing weight!

calories: 40g
net carbs: 11g

While I realize 11g isn't "zero" - it's also quite low compared to many other treats. With watermelon being so sweet, having great nutrition and being full of water, I consider this a great way to soothe that sweet tooth!